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In 1993, the IJMED published a special edition calling for a closing of the gap between academic research and the practice of emergency management. The goal of this paper is to understand where we are in the knowledge gap by examining where emergency management professionals get the information needed to solve the problems they face. Twenty— four interviews were conducted with emergency management professionals in the Southeast Texas and Houston-Galveston Regions along the Texas Gulf Coast. The findings suggest that experience is pervasive as a source and most report utilizing a network of peers to gain information to solve problems. Even among those with an advanced degree, there is a perception that there is either no research out there, or at least nothing that is readily available. The findings accentuate the need for research to focus its distribution efforts through federal and state training programs and planning, for academia to facilitate a mix of education and experience in practice, and for experienced practitioners to reach out to research through degreed peers to facilitate knowledge transfer and close the knowledge gap for disasters.

In this research note, I discuss results from a recent study assessing the impact that New Zealand's electoral and legislative system reforms had on levels of vote consensus achieved in the House of Representatives. Using a new legislative vote data set spanning from 1987 to 2007, I find evidence that the institutional changes fostered an increase in consensual legislative vote outcomes. I also provide a brief theoretical explanation of the developments and address a few issues concerning the measure of consensus used and the interpretation of the data.

AbstractThe strategies employed by emergency managers are intended to enhance rather than diminish the ability to meet society's needs and specifically those of vulnerable populations. This study looks at the strategies that emergency management professionals employ to reach and meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Twenty-four interviews were conducted in 2016 with county and city level emergency management professionals from across the Houston – Galveston and Southeast Texas regions. The interview data reveals a common element of control. However, while some do talk about the need to leave disaster management activities to the professionals, the need to bring in volunteers and foster flexibility in a controlled environment are indeed important. The need to build buy-in and understand protocols reveals the need for future research to better understand the extent that emergency management combines discipline with agility to address the challenges of the unexpected and decrease the impact of vulnerability.

The legislative agenda in most parliamentary systems is controlled tightly by the government and bills offered by individual members of parliament have low rates of success. Yet, members of parliament (MPs) do seek to present (private) members' bills even where the rate of adoption is very low. We argue that members' bills serve as an electoral connection but also as an opportunity for MPs to signal competence to their co-partisans. To demonstrate the presence of an electoral connection we take advantage of the random selection of private members' bills in the New Zealand House of Representatives and show that survey respondents approve more of electorate MPs whose bills were drawn on the ballot. In addition, we show that MPs respond to the incentives created by the voters and parties' willingness to reward legislative effort and, consequently, that electorally vulnerable legislators are more likely to place members' bills on the ballot.